Campanella Version

This time I’ve arranged it campanella style (so there’s one note per string) which seems appropriate since we’re talking about bells. It’s really important that you keep all the notes ringing into each other. So your index finger needs to be glued to the C string and your pinkie on the E string.

Easy Version

I’ve never quite understood the big deal about easy when it comes to music. The most common uke-related question on Yahoo Answers is, “How easy is it to play?” It’d be nice if, just once, someone asked, “Can I use the ukulele to wordlessly express the very core of my being?” or, “Can a ukulele make a sound that will bring great men to tears at the revelation of the fragility of perfect beauty?”

But if you must have an easy version, here you go. Just know that you’re the reason fairies die.

The time signature he uses is much easier to count out. But it does mean the E note moves about in the bar (which fries my brain and ends in me screwing it up). It’s a matter of personal preference which way you prefer to think of it.

But what if the very core of your being can
be wordlessly expressed by one simple down strum on a C chord, Al? That’s all it takes for some of us.

Whenever music gets too complex, too full of itself, it simplifies. Happened after Bach, happened after rock got too elaborate, lost its soul and its roots.

The ukulele doesn’t need Jake, doesn’t need James, doesn’t need the rise in the general level of technical proficiency and complexity we see today in order to survive. But it will wither and die if it loses simplicity. Those simple three chord songs are the heart and soul of our instrument. That’s where the real fun is, where the camraderie comes into play.

The part of ukuleledom where we ooh and aah over the flying fingers, where we freak out when, as James says in Mighty Uke, the sound coming out of the ukulele doesn’t synch-up with the motions producing those sounds, is exciting, but ultimately is just a sideshow.

All it takes to bring great men and women
to tears at the revelation of the fragility of perfect beauty is simple bird song.

Each time someone plays a kazoo with a ukulele, a fairy dies (in agony).

Ron i think the issue is more about under achieving, if you are always looking for the easiest and not the most effective way to do anything you wont be reaching your potential.

To me the joy from an instrument was always being able to move forward and improve, its those times when i work out how a certain riff goes or how to make something complex flow together nicely.
I don’t see how this should be different on the ukulele.

Of course I want to bring great men to tears at the revelation of the fragility of perfect beauty. But if it can be easy to play as well, that’s a nice bit of gravy on the side. And I agree with Ron about the kazoo. Well said, sir!

I have just read your comment. What exactly are you saying? I am not sure I agree with it. But maybe that’s just me.

The ukulele doesn’t need anyone. It is just a chunk of wood with strings on. It only makes music when someone plays it. When some people play the chunk of wood it can be staggeringly beautiful. You have named two such players. When others play it, it may not sound so good.

Ron: I think there’s a huge difference between simple and easy. It’s not easy to play something simple and sound magnificent. Both Jake and James can play a simple round of chords and make it sound incredible.

L.bo: Glad you managed to save a few fairies.

muz: Nicely put. That’s what I would have said if I was more eloquent.

Ken: I’m not playing (at the main event at least) but I’ll see you there.

Things often sound better with more complicated arrangements, like the harder Campanella version of this (although this Campanella arrangment is hardly for the super athlete alone). Some things sound better played simply on any instrument, some things sound better more intricately or complicated. The ukulele isn’t defined with simple playing at it’s core (personally the three chord uke songs often bore me – except that Antarcitca It Song and most of Ken’s folky versions of songs, but I would never say the soul of the uke is John King – it’s whatever you think it is.)

Anyway, sometimes it’s fun to master something really difficult, regardless of whatever standard of beauty. Shreding is fun. So’s listening to Ken’s version of Murder in the City.

And to Al’s point, I’d wager one reason Jake and James can make a simple chord progression sound beatiful is the hours spent mastering the entire instrument and a variety of styles. For example, learning right hand difficult techniques would likely improve your tone on simple things, ditto your strumming/plucking hand.

If those guys (including Ken) didn’t spend thousands of hours playing difficult things as well, but only spent the same amount of time doing simple progressions, I bet those progressions would sound and feel lot less beautiful.